Shi Yihong has been playing Peking Opera for almost 30 years. Photo: Courtesy of Shi Yihong

"I'm always dreaming that I can reach the perfection of Mei Lanfang one day. Although it seems only like a dream, this is really the motivation for me to stand on the Peking Opera stage, as I have been doing for almost 30 years," Shi Yihong, the 39-year-old Shanghai-born actress (her former name is Shi Min) from the Shanghai Peking Opera House, is not on stage, but sitting down talking to the Global Times about her life and career.

Natural elegance

During the conversation almost all of her gestures, from her eye-contact while talking, to her exquisite hand movements holding a cup, reveal her natural elegance. In 1982, at the age of 10, Shi started her Peking Opera learning at the Shanghai Traditional Opera School.

"I remember my teacher once shouted at me just because I laughed loudly with an open mouth while chatting to a classmate. She warned me, 'you are the person who will play qingyi (a demure, elegant female role in Peking Opera) in the future, so how can you laugh so exaggeratedly?' Although I did not completely understand her meaning at that time, I never dared to laugh like that in front of her again, and I began to pay very close attention to my manners," said Shi.

When she first started at the school however, she was assigned to be taught the role of wudan (a female acrobatic warrior) because of her experience of doing gymnastics for the previous two years.

"But several years later, in 1986, it was decided that I would learn the qingyi performance," she said.

Shi and her classmates were the first group of Peking Opera students to be readmitted to the Shanghai Traditional Opera School after the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

Shi told Global Times that there were 3,000 applicants for that first intake of which only 50 were accepted. Shi was only admitted after five auditions and interviews.

"It was really a time of revival for the various performing arts in China, including Peking Opera," she said. "Unlike now, at that time parents thronged to send their children to learn opera and teachers were selflessly devoted to the profession."

Shi said that she feels very lucky to have been able to join the Peking Opera at that time. "And in my subsequent career, my professional and long-term basic training has always helped me a lot."

In 1990, Shi entered the Shanghai Peking Opera House and became a professional Peking Opera performer. And in the 1990s - when Shi was only in her 20s - she achieved her first career peak. She was awarded "The Plum Blossom Prize," (the highest theatrical award for an individual performer in China) and was also honored as a "National Class One Actor," at that time. She said that in the history of Peking Opera there have been very few people who have received both these prizes at such a young age.

Since then, Shi has successfully played many Chinese female characters in classical Peking Opera works, including Bai Suzhen in The Legend of the White Snake, Lady Zhaojun in Lady Zhaojun Going Beyond the Great Wall, Concubine Yuji in Farewell, My Concubine and Mu Guiying in Women Generals of the Yang Family.

Shi Yihong performs during an opera rehearsal. Photo: Courtesy of Shi Yihong

Dwindling numbers

"However, it was also in the 1990s that our Peking Opera began to decline again, and every time I performed I could see that audience numbers were dwindling. After a while it was almost impossible to spot any young person watching," she said. "And also at the same time, most of my former classmates, switched to another profession; they either went into business or moved abroad," Shi said that out of her original class, no more than 10 people are still performing today.

Shi, however, stayed put and has been blazing new trails both inside Peking Opera, and out of it.

In 1999 and 2000, she worked with Tan Dun, the Academy award-winning classical composer. She performed in Tan's multimedia symphony musicals such as Door and 2000Today.

"Of course, at the very beginning, we had arguments, and sometimes both of us had to compromise with each other a little," said Shi. "But both for myself, and also for Peking Opera, it was a brand-new attempt and what I needed to do was just sing my Peking Opera arias without being disturbed by the symphony music behind me," Shi said.

Recently, Shi and other actors from the opera house have been rehearsing a new work adapted from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Shi is producing the show and will also play the Chinese Esmeralda.

Outside of Peking Opera, several years ago Shi tried her hand at Kunqu Opera and has also acted in several television series.

She even participated in a local television dance show, General Assembly Dance to show off her Latin dance skills.

Today she is known by the media and the public as "the crossover queen" - a multi-talented star who doesn't just perform Peking Opera.

"What we should always think about is how to adapt our creative performing styles to encourage more people to watch Peking Opera. We must never close the door on change. Of course, all new ideas need testing, but I think it is worth it to try, even if it ultimately fails."

Shi told the Global Times that there are strong indications of a recovery in the fortunes of Peking Opera. "I'm starting to see more young faces at least. I don't believe that any individual can save the whole of Peking Opera, but at least we should try out best to create more possibilities both for ourselves and also for this traditional Chinese art."